370 Mr. G. Tomlinson on Lightning 



down without doing any damage, just as the rain passes down 

 the water-pipe. By " properly arranged " is meant a conduc- 

 tor so fitted up that at whatever part of the building or ship 

 the lightning may happen to strike, it shall be conducted safely 

 to the earth or the sea. The French at one time had a theory 

 that a lightning-rod protected a surrounding space equal to a 

 circle the radius of which has twice the length of the light- 

 ning-rod. Bat in the presence of such cases as the above, 

 and others that might be cited, the radius of protection theory 

 has been abandoned by competent observers. 



But to return to our narrative. The continued opposition 

 of Wilson and his party embarrassed the Board of Ordnance, 

 and its members again applied to the Hoyal Society for advice. 

 After considerable debate, a second Committee was appointed, 

 consisting of the President and Secretaries together with 

 Messrs. Henley, Lane, and Nairne. They examined the powder- 

 magazines, and again reported in favour of pointed conductors. 

 Whereupon Wilson contrived a number of experiments in 

 support of his views, and forwarded a detailed account of them 

 to the Board of Ordnance, which referred it back to the Hoyal 

 Society. Several meetings were occupied in the reading and 

 discussion of Wilson's paper, and at length another Committee 

 was appointed, consisting of the Hon. H. Cavendish, Henley, 

 Lane, Lord Mahon, Nairne, Dr. Priestley, and Dr. Watson, 

 with instructions to test Wilson's experiments and conclusions, 

 and report the result to the Society. The report was altogether 

 unfavourable to Wilson, who became wroth at this further 

 testimony in favour of Franklin's pointed conductors, and he 

 endeavoured to persuade the Government that the Society as 

 a body did not agree with the reports of its several committees. 

 Whereupon the Board of Ordnance applied to the President to 

 ascertain whether this were so. The reply was to the effect 

 that the voice of the Society was usually expressed by its 

 Committees, but that in the present case " the Society had no 

 reason to be dissatisfied with the Report of its Committee/'' 



England was at this time at war with her American Colonies, 

 and as the American rebel Franklin was the inventor of pointed 

 conductors, Wilson and his friends seized the opportunity of 

 making the quarrel a political one. It is scarcely credible at 

 the present day that at the time here referred to, those who 

 advocated sharp conductors were to be regarded as rebels and 

 republicans, while those who advocated blunt conductors 

 were naturally good and loyal subjects. Franklin was at this 

 time in France, supporting the claims of the colonists in that 

 country. In a letter to Dr. Ingenhousz, dated 14th October, 

 1777, after referring to the report which he drew up in 1772, 



